Students are known for being apathetic, especially when it comes to politics and voting. When it comes to the Missouri Students Association election, the student body seems to be no more interested in voting for the student body president.
But we should be. MSA controls a $1.5 million budget, and in recent elections candidates have won by a mere 21 votes. This means your vote does, in fact, count.
As an editorial board, we have chosen to endorse Xavier Billingsley and Helena Kooi.
Our favorite part of their campaign is the active recruitment of ideas and opinions from the student body.
Their Facebook page is full of conversations with students generating ideas for their campaign. Some of the requests brought up may be low hanging fruit, such as a Redbox on campus, but it’s relevant to students. They also include prompts to vote and direct requests such as, “‘LIKE’ if you’d like to see expanded staff and hours in the student unions!”
It’s important to make sure overarching goals aren’t overshadowed by small requests or complaints from students, but either way, asking for student feedback will help ensure our student leaders are truly representing students.
Everett Bruer and Lexie Cartee also effectively utilized Facebook to begin conversations with students, but their questions and polls seemed to bring up less serious issues.
The Greg Loeffler/Lauren Damico slate had an active Facebook, but the focus was on reporting news of their campaign, not asking for student ideas and feedback.
Billingsley-Kooi have the well-rounded background other candidates lack. Although Kooi has no MSA experience, her resume speaks for itself, and we’re more impressed by her success in other leadership roles than we are put-off by the lack of a voting record.
The connections the two have with Greek Life, Summer Welcome, Alternative Spring Break, Tour Team, the Chancellor’s Standing Committee for Student Conduct and Residential Life could be leveraged in order to reach their goals. For instance, understanding how Residential Life works will help MSA find a solution to the issue of gender-neutral housing.
However, while we can respect Kooi’s self-confidence in her ability to handle two intense leadership positions, we would like to see her going into the position with a bit more humility. The student budget is no small feat, and having a truly active vice president will only help the MSA president be a more effective leader. We see a lot of potential in Kooi, and would hate to see that falter due to being overburdened.
In terms of One Mizzou, we found Billingsley-Kooi had the best plan.
There are plenty of student groups and coalitions better suited to run One Mizzou than MSA, but a powerful ally who can easily obtain the ears of administrators couldn’t hurt the initiative.
They intend to have a One Mizzou Week helping students to have a tangible experience to increase diversity. In addition, it would be a way to hold One Mizzou more accountable and reclaim the idea of One Mizzou as a part of the diversity experience rather than one associated with athletics and the Joplin relief effort.
We found it unfortunate that we found Billingsley more appropriate to support One Mizzou when Loeffler is currently a part of One Mizzou himself.
Bruer-Cartee showed the most initiative going outside of their comfort zones in attending diversity events. Billingsley attended many events, especially those put on by the Legion of Black Collegians, but while that experience will undoubtedly help him in the MSA president position, it doesn’t show an initiative to learn about outside cultures.
Other initiatives Billingsley-Kooi are fighting for include increasing bike usage on campus, pushing for a greater number of e-books in the MU Bookstore, creating a more inclusive Homecoming for all groups and looking into a more self-sustaining transportation system on campus.
The gender-neutral housing initiative is lacking on the team’s website. The two have spoken in support of the initiative, but it’s missing in their official platform.
The duo seems willingly to listen to students, and we believe they will continue the upward trend of MSA to increase transparency and communication with students. In addition, they seem friendly, approachable and put-together — all important qualities in a student leader, as it’s important for students to feel comfortable approaching their student leaders.
Overall, Billingsley-Kooi are the best prepared to take on the daunting task of representing the student body, and of all the presidential candidates, we found Billingsley the most open, honest and well-spoken. We believe he will be a good representative of the student body when speaking with administrators.
